HEALTH CHIEF CALLS AIDS BATTLE 'NO. 1 PRIORITY'

By ROBERT PEAR, Special to the New York Times

Published: May 25, 1983

WASHINGTON, May 24—
The Government's top health official said today that the investigation of acquired immune deficiency syndrome had become ''the No. 1 priority'' of the United States Public Health Service.

Dr. Edward N. Brandt Jr., an Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, said the Government was taking steps in an effort to identify the cause and find a cure for the mysterious illness, known as AIDS, which leads to a breakdown of the body's immune system against disease. Dr. Brandt announced six new research grants for study of the ailment and the approval of a new heat treatment for blood products, through which some scientists believe the infectious agent might be transmitted.

At a news conference, Dr. Brandt also said he was urging state and local health officers to report all cases of AIDS. He said the Federal Centers for Disease Control had stepped up surveillance of the disease. Since June 1981, the centers have received reports of 1,450 AIDS cases, of which 558, or 38.5 percent, resulted in death. Among the 78 cases diagnosed at least two years ago, the fatality rate was 82 percent.

In the last three weeks medical journals have carried reports suggesting that the disease could be sexually transmitted from men to women and could be transmitted to children through ''routine close contact'' with adults. But Dr. Brandt said there was ''no cause for fear among the general public that individuals may develop AIDS through casual contact with an AIDS patient.''

He confirmed that half the AIDS cases had occurred in New York City, but he said he did not know why. ''If we knew the answer why,'' he said, ''we would really begin to understand this disease much more effectively.''

While expressing ''a sense of great urgency'' about the disease, Dr. Brandt said: ''We have seen no evidence that it is breaking out from the originally defined high-risk groups. I personally do not think there is any reason for panic among the general population.''

Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, an assistant director of the Centers for Disease Control, said 71 percent of the AIDS cases had occurred among homosexual or bisexual men. Seventeen percent of those who contracted the disease had taken drugs such as heroin through their veins. Haitian immigrants accounted for 5 percent of the cases, and people with hemophilia accounted for 1 percent. Six percent of the cases were not in any of these groups, but Dr. Koplan said they might have fit into one of the categories if doctors had done more complete investigations.

Dr. Brandt rejected the suggestions of some critics who said the Public Health Service had neglected the disease because it occurred mainly among homosexuals.

But after he spoke, Virginia M. Apuzzo, executive director of the National Gay Task Force, a homosexual rights organization, said: ''The entire agency is conducting business as usual insofar as this particular health crisis is concerned. It is inexcusable that a supplemental budget request has not been submitted to Congress.''

Shellie L. Lengel, a spokesman for Dr. Brandt, said the disease had been emerging as the top priority of the Public Health Service in the last 6 to 12 months. The priority, she said, was reflected in spending, in personnel devoted to work on the disease, in the number of investigations under way and in the time and attention given to the subject by Federal officials.

Dr. Brandt said the Government expected to spend $14.5 million for work on AIDS this year. That is almost as much as the $15.9 million the Government has spent combating legionnaires' disease since the first recognized outbreak in 1976, he said. Plan to Seek More Funds

In another indication of growing concern in Washington, aides to Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. reported that he would seek $12 million in additional funds for research and other activities related to the immune deficiency syndrome. The money, to be proposed as part of a supplemental appropriation bill for the current fiscal year, would increase Federal spending on the disease by 83 percent. Mr. Weicker, a Connecticut Republican, is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that handles money bills for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Some police officers have expressed fears that they might contract the disease through first-aid work involving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and some laboratory technicians have worried about being infected when they handle blood samples.

But Dr. Brandt said: ''There have been no cases of suspected transmission of AIDS from a patient to a health care provider, nor have there been any cases of suspected transmission of AIDS from laboratory specimens to laboratory workers. There is no evidence to date that indicates AIDS is spread by casual contact. On the contrary, our findings indicate that AIDS is spread almost entirely though sexual contact, through the sharing of needles by drug abusers and, less commonly, through blood or blood products.''

Dr. Brandt emphasized that the disease posed a high risk to homosexual men only if they had many partners. The disease has reportedly led to significant changes in the ''gay life style.'' Miss Apuzzo of the National Gay Task Force said homosexual men ''had become a lot more reflective'' in their relationships, and in some cases, there was a ''reduction in the number of partners.''